tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786752.post8449863379470075389..comments2023-10-09T09:07:18.186-04:00Comments on My Ecdysis: Figuring Out Figure SkatingLisahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16013142465038823597noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786752.post-32152107216081096902009-01-28T03:44:00.000-05:002009-01-28T03:44:00.000-05:00Figure - skating already seems to define it’s danc...Figure - skating already seems to define it’s dance artistic marking systems through a sense of elegance and grace that can easily be seen to be associated with ideals of femininity - although to a certain extent may be influenced by anatomy and innate qualities of the male and female body. <BR/>But in what other sport would a girl be deemed not as attractive as the next and therefore not a valid choice for selection. Yuck. Isn’t this sort of media projection just another pressure for, say young female skaters, to conform to a ‘look’ and therefore a performance that in turn conforms to a gender aesthetic that limits progress in the sport?<BR/><BR/>To me, some of the best sporting and athletic performance on ice are those where the gender is secondary to the performance - where the female skater does not conform to ‘being’ a woman - or what we think it is to be a woman. Then it stops being ballet and ballroom; It stops being about dance, and starts being about sport, and developing and pushing the physicality of the athletic body - artistically, and technically.<BR/><BR/>http://www.hannah-gravestock.co.uk/Drawing_the_performing_body/Performance_blog_and_podcast/Entries/2009/1/2_Training_spaces.htmlAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786752.post-41600237728721137232009-01-27T19:00:00.000-05:002009-01-27T19:00:00.000-05:00P.S. I should've said "it hurt me a lot," not "it ...P.S. I should've said "it hurt me a lot," not "it meant a lot to me," though I am surprised that that's what it was and that I can finally name it.~Macarena~https://www.blogger.com/profile/04293093033103987629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786752.post-12748438969051049802009-01-27T18:49:00.000-05:002009-01-27T18:49:00.000-05:00Joan Ryan discusses that policing of femininity is...Joan Ryan discusses that policing of femininity is her book <I>Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters</I>. After reading it, I don't think I can watch skating or gymnastics. While it's mostly about gymnastics, she explains how judges and the media pitted Nancy Kerrigan against Tonya Harding (the better skater) in an angel vs. devil match, complete with white vs. red costumes. Kerrigan was the "nice" one, and the commentators often mentioned her mother, whose limited eyesight led her to, as we got to see, peer at a T.V. set a couple inches in front of her, hoping, literally, to catch a glimpse of her daughter. Harding had an uncouth, violent ex-husband.<BR/><BR/>In addition to sexism, Ryan mentions the racism of judges who held back my favorite skater ever, Surya Bonaly, who turned her back to them in defiance. Though I don't identify as black, it meant a lot to me that judges robbed me of Bonaly and the first black Miss America, Vanessa L. Williams.~Macarena~https://www.blogger.com/profile/04293093033103987629noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30786752.post-62665404231976877542009-01-27T12:13:00.000-05:002009-01-27T12:13:00.000-05:00Women's gymnastics skeeves me for similar reasons ...Women's gymnastics skeeves me for similar reasons -- in among all the amazing athleticism, there is STRICT policing of femininity. At first I thought it was all self-selected, but when I said aloud that I wish I had it all to do over again, because I'd want to be a female gymnast in tats and piercings, all the adults reacted in horror, and I was told in no uncertain terms that such looks were against the team rules, and I would have been kicked off the team.<BR/><BR/>I STILL don't see why hair-glitter and press-on gems is acceptable on an athlete yet tattoos aren't.<BR/><BR/>But anyway, yeah, there's strict self-policing of femininity going on from the girls themselves, but it's very much happening in an environment where the adults are setting up official rules that police appropriate femininity. Which is EXACTLY the wrong thing for adults to be doing, IMO.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com